Join us in Perth, Western Australia from 10-16 April 2023 for the inaugural Australian Cardijn Institute Leadership for Transformation and Social Change: Community Development and Discipleship from Cardijn to Pope Francis Program.
This is a program designed for youth leaders, youth ministers, parish workers, teachers, seminarians, priests and religious, who are working with or would like to work on forming young people as lay missionary disciples of Jesus active in the world today.
It responds particularly to the Australian Plenary Council’s call for a “renewal of formation” and models that “encourage and strengthen the apostolate of the laity in the world.” (Decree 6, §7)
“This apostolate offers a particular prophetic sign by seeking the common good and by concrete actions that protect and promote human dignity, peace and justice,” the Australian Plenary Council says.
“Attentive to the ‘signs of the times’, movements of the lay apostolate, in their various forms, offer the baptised a way to reflect on the concrete experiences of their lives in the light of the Gospel and engage as missionary disciples in the world,” the Plenary continues, endorsing the see-judge-act method of formation.
“As a means for formation, the apostolate of the laity is grounded in scriptural reflection, reception of the ecclesial wisdom of our tradition, and prayerful communal discernment. This formation shapes Christian engagement with the broader Australian community through listening and dialogue, and supports actions for the transformation of society through daily commitment and public witness.”
Our program is thus based on the spirituality and methods of lay apostolate formation developed by Joseph Cardijn, founder of the Young Christian Workers (YCW), and inspired by Pope Francis’ vision of a Church of committed missionary disciples.
It comprises two parts:
- A complete one week live-in course to be held in Rockingham, Western Australia that will provide you with the tools and training necessary to launch local teams or group of young (or indeed older!) missionary disciples able to see, judge and act to transform their lives, communities and even perhaps the world in light of their faith.
- Four online workshops from April to July 2023 to consolidate the learnings of the live-in week and to accompany participants as they set out to work with young people in their home cities and regions.
